FIGHTING PAST DEPRESSION, BILLY BROWN WENT ON TO BREAK THREE STATE POWERLIFTING RECORDS

There’s something about the simplicity of powerlifting that Billy Brown identifies with. 

“You are only training for three movements,” he said. “To lift them as heavy as possible. There are a million ways to train for it, but the goals are always the same, and they’re very specific. Plus, feeling like you could pick up a refrigerator and throw it through a wall is a big perk.”

It wasn’t always that way for Billy, though. As an adventure writer, the gig naturally led him to trail running, then ultrarunning (30+ miles). 

“It was fun but cut my weight down to a good 160 pounds, and as a shorter, stockier dude, I was always nursing some tweak or injury,” Billy said. “Eventually, I got into CrossFit, which was an excellent challenge and way more fun, but the most important thing is that it led me to powerlifting. My buddy is deeply immersed in the sport, and he thought I’d be a fan. He was dead-on. With the other sports, there was a long transition where I learned the sport, and a weekly variety of tweaks and minor injuries that I’d have to nurse, but my body loved the simplicity of heavy squats, bench and deadlift.”

After six months, Billy had gained 40 pounds (up to 220), put 100 pounds on his squat and deadlift, and within a year he broke three state records (squat, deadlift and total for 220 submasters) – all while sporting an APEMAN shirt.

The journey, however, wasn’t easy. He went through a self-described rough patch immediately before he started powerlifting where he stopped working out and drank himself to sleep every night. One of those times where everything falls apart at once and creates a perfect storm. 

“I was using booze to medicate, which exacerbated the problem,” he said. “But I knew that I had to keep moving forward somehow, and fitness was always a catalyst for me to move on and move forward in life. I was usually too hung over to handle the intensity of a CrossFit workout, so one day I went back to my gym and just did squats. That got the ball rolling and after a few months, my drinking and eating was under control, I was out of my depression, and I was back on track.”

Billy says that your attitude is the only thing you have control over in life. That you can turn a bad situation into a good one instantaneously by changing how you think about it. 

“It’s up to you to have the mindset to not only make it through the rough patches, but also to make them easier and to turn them to your advantage, to make the obstacle to your goals, the path to your goals,” Billy added. 

That’s why he identifies so much with APEMAN’s Endure This Night phrase. 

“It encapsulates my thoughts whenever I’m going through a rough patch,” he said. “Every feeling, every situation is temporary and every day is a new one. If you can power through the darkness, there will always be some light on the other side. 

“Just endure the night.”